Recently I came across this video in which a woman from the Red Light Secrets Museum in Amsterdam explains some things about prostitution in Amsterdam. That I'm not really fond of that museum isn't a secret, I already wrote an angry blogpost about how this museum gives a distorted image about workinga behind the windows and the women that work there. The museum seems to aim at giving the people the idea that the girls work in disgusting rooms, on stained beds (I almost felt I had to throw up when I saw how the bed in the museum looked like), and playing the whole 'this-could-be-your-daughter' complex by adding in teddy bears in the workroom to give people a bad feeling about it.
But the worst part about that museum in my opinion, was the usage of a video from Stop The Traffik, which gives complete false information about human trafficking in the Red Light District in Amsterdam, claiming every year 'thousands' end up here, even though there are only 400 windows and we barely have 1000 window prostitutes in Amsterdam in total, and claiming they came here under false pretenses, which even for most trafficked victims isn't the case at all.

So I know already that the people from the Red Light Secrets Museum in Amsterdam aren't very well informed. Not a strange thing, the museum is a project from the city of Amsterdam and part of Project 1012, which has as an aim to reduce the number of workplaces for window prostitutes with as an excuse fighting human trafficking. And the building in which this museum is now located, used to be a couple of windows for sex workers to work in. Now it's just a place where they're just giving out false information about our job, and I don't think that's just an accident.
One of the reasons why, is of course because it's a project of the city of Amsterdam itself, which needs to use false information to justify their project of closing down windows of women. The second reason is that one of the people that used to work on setting up this museum was Ilonka Stakelborough, the former chairman of Geisha, an organisation that was supposed to improve the position of sex workers, but in reality never did anything at all.
Recently we got informed that Ilonka has already been suspended by Geisha as a chairman by the other people in that organisation. Not a strange thing if you consider some of the bullshit she told the media, and the fact that she worked on creating a bad image for sex workers behind the window with this museum.

But that the people in this museum know little about the reality of what's going on around them, get's proven again with this video. In the video a woman claims that some windows on the other side are closing down because women working there would be forced, or so she read in the newspaper.
And indeed, the newspapers did try and make it look that way. But we also know that none of the windows she's talking about, have closed down, even though they should have been closed down already. So it looks like just another attempt from the city of Amsterdam and the mayor to give the Red Light District a bad name, and again without any proof. And the 6 windows that did close down recently, weren't closed down because girls working there would be forced, but because the owner of those buildings sold it to the city of Amsterdam.
In short, it's not true at all that windows closed down because women would be forced behind those windows. In fact, of all the 117 windows that have closed down by now, never has it ever been proven that even a single woman was forced who worked behind those windows. And this is a recurring thing, as we've also seen happening in Utrecht. Also there people claimed windows were closed down due to women being forced, but until this day that has never been proven.

In fact, looking at the 673 windows that have been closed down in Holland. Almost all of those windows were closed down with the story that women working behind those windows would be forced. But in none of those cases has it ever been proven.
It's the constant universal truth about window prostitution in Holland. They've closed down 673 windows here, always with an excuse that subsequently never gets proven. But by the time that it becomes clear that the windows are closed under false suspicions, it's already too late. The windows are closed, and once they are closed they never open up again. This is the result of the fact that's it's almost impossible to get a permit for prostitution, and that's even if they want you back at all.

This is again proof that constantly people are trying to close down prostitution, using lies and false information. But it also proves that people just believe that information, even though it gets proven time after time again that this is not true.
Brothel owners are always being put away as evil, and that they would be facilitating and even helping pimps with human trafficking. A strange thing, since even after for example the city of Amsterdam tried to get them away using a BIBOB procedure (a procedure using your possible criminal history to close down your business), it turned out there was nothing wrong with the brothel owners. They couldn't prove a damn thing! Time after time I see the brothel owners getting blamed for things nobody has ever proved to be true at all!

Also now the city of Amsterdam is still trying to give brothel owners a bad name, with their plan to open up 19 prostitution windows. They claim that this will be a 'pimp free' brothel, as if other brothels are not 'pimp free', even though they have no evidence to support this claim at all.
And fact is, that it's absolute bullshit that these 19 windows would become 'pimp free'. These 19 windows from the city of Amsterdam have just as much potential for human trafficking, as any other brothel. Just because a brothel is run by different people, doesn't take away the problems of human trafficking. But that of course goes in against the story that Amsterdam wants to use to justify the closures of those other brothels. After all, if it's not the fault of the person running the brothel, their whole claim to close down brothels to fight human trafficking falls apart.

And how does closing down windows actually help to fight human trafficking? We're not solving any problems with that, we're just pushing them away, into illegal prostitution. The free working women will be forced to continue their work in less safe places, since there aren't any other legal options anymore. And those women that are forced, certainly won't be helped, if they disappear into the dark abyss of illegal prostitution.

Fact is that it has never been proven that the women behind the windows that have been closed, or are still going to close down, are forced. Take for example the 6 windows that closed down last January in the Bethlehemsteeg. I knew all of those girls working there, none of them were forced, I can guarantee you that. Yet, the city of Amsterdam keeps claiming that they're closing down windows where women are forced, which is absolutely not true. After all, if they knew those women would be forced, why don't they help them in stead of kicking them out onto the street?
The other thing Amsterdam keeps claiming is that closing down windows will help the fight against human trafficking, because the area becomes smaller and therefore easier to control. Which is just another way of saying that they don't have enough capacity, and in stead of investing in more manpower, they'd rather just close their eyes to those women they kick out onto the street, and only want to focus on those women in the windows they are not going to close down. In other words, they simply don't care about the women in the windows they want to close down.

That`s right, Anna. They don`t care about those women. As u have told, this is not an accident. It seems like a planified strategy to shut down brothels and give a bad image of prostitution. Thats the main idea u keep repeating time after time.

Now, we must ask ourselves why are they doing this. Really aren`t they well informed? You are speaking about what authorities do, they have even opened a musem. They must be very sure of what happens in the red light district to show people how it is.

I ask u, and ur readers... can be possible, as hipothesis, that Amsterdam`s authorities know like u that there is no forced prostitution SO they need to build up an alternative reality telling that it is real? Which interests can they have to spend so many efforts in creating such image? Basically, in ur posts u are saying that public authorities in ur city are ignorants or liars. It seems very difficult for me to believe that they dont know what is happening in the streets, in the brothels, in the windows bcause really it isn`t hard to find out. So, if they are lying they must have a good reason.

@Client X, you're talking bullsh1t. You are the liar. Sex workers know the truth about what happens where they work not politicians or the media. Are you trying to tell me politicians and the media never tell lies? What a joke. I think I'll believe Felicia's word over politicians. I'm tired of all the lies spread by abolitionists. What two consenting adults do in private is none of the state's business. And another thing, sex work and sex trafficking are two completely separate issues and should never be conflated. Of course it suits the abolitionists' agenda to muddy the waters and deceive the public into thinking that whereever there is prostitution there is trafficking! Please.... enough with the lies. At least have the decency to admit that you want to put sex workers out of work instead of pretending you care about them as victims.

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Romanian prostitute working in the Red Light District in Amsterdam (De Wallen), speaking out for the truth behind prostitution. Blogging about prostitution, human trafficking, forced prostitution, politics and all the myths surrounding it. Member of PROUD, the Dutch union of sex workers.